Deal could mean $120 million in county economic impact

By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Osceola County’s reputation as an epicenter for amateur athletics was further cemented Monday as the National Senior Games Association announced it would relocate its corporate headquarters to Kissimmee.

With this comes the organization’s National Senior Games, the area will host five times between 2016 and 2025 as part of its agreement with the county.

The Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve an agreement to offer a temporary lease on office space to the organization on Beaumont Avenue before it takes permanent residence at the Convention and Visitors Bureau offices at Bill Beck Boulevard and U.S. Highway 192.  The CVB is moving to Celebration later this year and the county will renovate its office for the NSGA, which plans to move into its new Kissimmee offices this fall.

In a presentation to the county board Monday prior to its vote, CVB Director Shelley Maccini said the pact with the NSGA to bring its headquarters from Baton Rouge, La. and national athletic competition would provide the area with nearly $120 million in economic impact, and $1.6 in tourist development tax dollars that now don’t appear on any budget.

“This provides a way for us to increase our sports presence and target a new demographic,” she said.

Macini also reported that the organization agreed to move its national games, which will become an annual (rather than bi-annual) event beginning in 2015, from June to September.

“This will help us fill a non-peak time for the hotel and lodging industry,” she said.

Mike Sophia, CEO of NSGA, said the national event would encompass Olympic-style competitions for athletes over age 50, divided into five-year interval groups, at 15 to 20 venues.

“There’s great community support, it’s a destination for tourism, and there are tremendous facilities,” he said. “The whole situation is ideal for us.”

It also doesn’t hurt that the National Games came to the area when Walt Disney World hosted in 1999, attracting upward of 10,000 athletes, along with their family members and friends.

Sophia noted the work of the Central Florida Sports Commission during the process of selecting a new site. CFSC President and CEO John Bisignano said his organization had been “looking for a way to bring these games back for a decade.

“It’s the largest multi-sport in the country,” Bisignano said. “It brings a world-class tourist destination and a world-class sports organization together to do new business.”

Brian Wong, vice chairman of the Osceola County Tourist Development Council, said the agreement to bring the Senior Games and its administration to Kissimmee is a big win for the county.

“This will help keep our hotels full during the slowest time of the year, which will help keep county residents employed,” he said. “This also provides us with a segment of multi-generational travel; it might be the Senior Games but we know that many of their children and grandchildren will come as well.”

Because of the nature of the negotiations with the NSGA, and the potential that other municipalities could make counter offers and undermine the CVB’s efforts to bring the organization here, contracts and other documents were not drawn up for extended scrutiny by commissioners before they voted on the measure. That drew the ire of Commissioner Frank Attkisson, who cast the lone vote against the agreement.

“I want the Senior Games to come here,” he said. “But I’m disappointed in the approach that the county staff has taken in bringing this to us.”

The 2013 National Games will be in Cleveland, Ohio. Osceola County hosted the Florida State Senior Games four times (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000), and held its own local Senior Games from the mid-1980s until 2008 before a lack of municipal funding ended them for two years; they returned in 2011 and will be held again this year Oct. 13-20.